The Event Horizon
by Maverick Flare
Summary: Event Horizon: the boundary at which the pull of an object becomes so great as to make escape impossible. For Riku, that limit was crossed the day he met Sora. (High School AU)
1. Blue is the Warmest Color

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own school-buses, cafeterias or high schools.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings**, **very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Author's notes**: Let's face it: the reason I came back on this site is the release of KH3, which managed to infuse me with newfound enthusiasm! The basic idea for this story goes back a couple of years, when I discussed it with a fellow writer. In the end, we did nothing about it, but the plot was actually quite good in my opinion, so I decided to work from that. That said, please read and, if possible, enjoy :).

P.S: As usual, I'd like to remember you all that I'm not a native English speaker, so it's possible/probable that a few grammar mistakes may have slipped in. Please, feel free to report what you find so that I can correct them.

**Dedication**: To _SilverHairedAngel_, who kept on motivating me on working on this story with her support on my last fic, and to _OngakuDream_, for having accepted to beta-read this chapter.

* * *

**The Event Horizon**

**Chapter 1: Blue is the Warmest Color**

The tall silver-haired boy looked out of the window, bored: the day was rainy and the bus was progressing slower than usual. Not that Riku really cared: reaching school earlier would just mean being exposed to people for longer. At least there, in the last row of the school bus, none bothered him.

It had been nearly a year since his outing, on the fateful day that he had decided to appropriately refer as 'The Day That Shall Not Be Remembered In Any Shape Or Form'. 'The Day' for short.

Like it or not, 'The Day' was when his life had drastically changed: from 'popular-swimming-champion-and-frankly-quite-good-looking-teenager' to 'loser-gay-boy-none-wants-to-talk-to', the gap had been incredibly short. His friends had disappeared, his popularity had crumbled and the last time he had dared to show his face to his swimming team he had found himself with a broken nose.

_'Ah, who cares about those losers! I don't need them, I don't need anyone!'_

With those words in mind, Riku realized that the school bus had finally reached its destination. After having waited patiently for all of the other passengers to leave, he straightened quickly his shirt and followed them, just to stop a few steps later in front of the silvery gate reading 'Twilight High'.

_'Alright, then. Get ready for the worst part of the day.'_

He breathed deeply, then he started walking as fast as possible through the gates of hell and straight into the fiery pit.

The first fifty steps in the schoolyard went on quietly, if not for the slight awareness that people were staring, shooting him poisonous glares and sneering scowls. Even worse, they were whispering. Only another fifty steps and he would have reached the cafeteria, also known as 'The Shelter'. It had been three whole days without anyone directly insulting him, only half a day more and it would have been a new record. Just forty more steps. Thirty. Twenty. Ten.

And then he saw him.

_'Shit, and it was shaping to be such a nice day...'_

A small brunet with spiky hair was talking animatedly with a cute redhead girl that Riku knew way too well. His ex-girlfriend, to be precise. The one that had ditched him last year, when 'The Accident' had happened.

Riku despised Kairi, of course, but she was nothing compared to what he felt towards the young boy talking with her: a transfer student from Radiant Garden that had come to Twilight High just a week before. He didn't know him personally, but despite being only one week since his arrival, he had already earned a reputation as a Struggle champion, the most popular sport in Twilight Town. Which was even more impressive when you took into account his small frame. He had become so popular that in just a couple of days he had joined the group of the 'kewl kidz', of which his ex-girlfriend was a prominent member, of course.

Riku didn't have a real reason to hate him, but everything about that boy infuriated him. His voice, his mannerisms, his perpetual smile, he couldn't even stand his name. 'Sora', what a stupid name!

And now those two were chatting right next to the entrance of the cafeteria. Riku had no other choice then walking past them and hope that he could pass without catching their attention.

But just the moment he was next to them, the brunet suddenly turned his head and their gaze meet for a second. Ocean blue meeting aquamarine eyes.

And, for some reasons, Riku blanked out.

The awkward moment didn't last really long, though. Half a second later, Kairi was dragging Sora away, pretending not to have seen her ex-boyfriend. Just before they disappeared, he got the strangest feeling that that small boy was smiling at him.

* * *

Once the cafeteria reached, Riku finally relaxed.

He was sitting at a small table, just big enough for two people tops and placed in the darkest corner of the huge room.

He was alone, as usual, but he didn't care.

During the last year, that table had been one of the few places where he had managed to carve a little spot for himself, a little slice of heaven where he could really loosen up and didn't need to be careful about someone trying to sneak behind him to play some stupid prank.

He started eating his usual chocolate-croissant, calmly studying the tables around his own. One in particular caught his attention. The usual one.

It was one of the largest tables, standing in the middle of the cafeteria, as to say: 'hey, look at me, the people who sit here must be cool'. Around it, seven people that Riku knew way too well were having breakfast.

Axel and Saïx, ex-comrades from the swimming team and chronic pranksters. 'Red-and-Blue' for short, not only because of their extravagant hair color, but mainly for their antithetic personalities. Axel, the Red Oni, looked like he was laughing his ass off, while Saïx, the Blue Oni, was looking at his friend, a weird mix of amusement and compassion on his face.

Next was Seifer, who had not special merits if not being the biggest asshole of the whole school. But quite good-looking, Riku had to admit it. Fitting enough, he was talking with the biggest slut of the school. _'Alright, man, try to stay objective!' _...with a quite promiscuous girl. Most probably, he was uselessly hitting on her: Seifer had always had a crush on Kairi, everyone knew that, but the girl had always refused his advances.

Hayner and Larxene were next. An ass-kisser and ass-kicker, and not in the good meaning of the word. They were sitting there, quietly ignoring each other. Not surprising at all, actually: the two of them could barely stand each other. Hayner usually spent half of his time following Seifer in adoration like a puppet and the other half being insulted by Larxene for doing so.

And, finally, the worst one amongst them. The great evil of Twilight High. The devil with an angel face.

Roxas.

Just thinking about him made Riku wanting to stand up and punch him in the face. He was sitting there, quietly, pretending to go along with anyone on that cursed table, but the silver-haired boy knew better. He knew that he was little more than a self-righteous egotistical little bastard.

There was one empty chair next to him. The chair where Riku used to sit until last year and that since a week had started to be filled by Sora, the boy that, for some reasons, everyone liked. The boy who had stolen his place, his social status and pretty much everything else that Riku had ever cared for. As he thought so, he found himself gritting his teeth unconsciously. He just couldn't stand that little piece of...

"Is this seat free?"

That innocent question broke Riku's flow of thoughts and an unpleasant feeling of surprise struck him. Nothing compared to when he realized who his interlocutor was.

He stared for a couple of seconds at the scrawny brunet standing next to him, holding a tray full of food. A couple of shining blue eyes were looking at him, waiting for an answer.

The silver-haired boy couldn't believe it: Sora was talking to him! He was daring to talk to him! He wanted to insult him, to tell him to go away, to disappear from his school.

Instead a surly "It always is." came out of his mouth.

The brunet, clearly oblivious of the other boy's hostility, put the tray on the small table and sat next to him.

"My name is Sora." he then said, all the while stiffing a whole pancake into his mouth. "I'm a transfer student."

"I don't remember asking it." Riku answered coldly. "And I don't remember telling you that you could sit here."

The brunet smiled peacefully, irritating the silver-haired boy even more. "Now that you mention it, it's true that I've always seen you sitting here all by yourself, is that a choice?"

"Sure, just not mine." Riku retorted. He was dead set on making that infuriating boy leave him alone. "Don't you have another place where to sit?"

"Pwowably." Sora muttered, his mouth full of food. "What's your name, by the way?"

Riku was feeling more and more uneasy. He had noticed that the closer tables, including that of Seifer's company, were starting to look at them, evidently surprised that someone was talking to him. The popular transfer student, no less.

He took a deep breath, trying to control himself. "Listen, for your own good, you'd better change table as soon as possible. If people see you with me, they could get the wrong idea..."

Sora looked at him, clearly surprised. Riku couldn't help but stare once more at the boy's deep blue eyes, shining faintly in the neon light of the cafeteria. "What do you mean?"

The question that Riku didn't want to hear. He knew that he liked guys. He knew it since he was twelve and had fallen in love with his then best friend. He knew it and he had accepted it, differently from the rest of the world. But admitting it, plainly saying 'yes, I'm gay' was something that he had still not managed to do.

"I'm a social outcast." he finally muttered, in all sincerity. As an answer, Sora resumed eating. Not the reaction that Riku had expected.

"You don't look like one." the brunet said a moment later, slightly surprising the older boy. "I mean, you can evidently carry on a conversation, even if you clearly don't feel like doing it right now, you don't seem to have strange manners that would make me think that you're a psychotic serial-killer and... you're quite good-looking."

The silver-haired boy spat his coffee on the table, earning a gentle laugh from the other boy.

"Relax, I was joking. You really need to lighten up a little." Riku felt back the urge to strangle the scrawny boy.

But just before he could answer, the ring of the school bell echoed in the cafeteria, announcing the beginning of another long school day. Riku could clearly see, in the corner of his eye, Seifer standing up and starting to walk towards them. He pretended not to see him.

"Hey, Sora, coming with us?" Seifer exclaimed grinning when he reached the two of them. He hadn't shown the slightest sign of having noticed Riku's presence. And for that he was actually happy.

"Sure!" the brunet chirped happily. _'Well, that takes care of him, at least.'_ Riku thought, just a second before Sora talked again. "You coming with us?"

A palpable silence fell over the three of them. The awkwardness of the situation was evident, but Sora was obliviously keeping on moving his eyes from Riku to Seifer, waiting for one of them to say something.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea." Riku finally said, averting his look.

Seifer smiled viciously, grabbing Sora's arm and starting to walk away. "Great, let's go then!"

"Riku." the silver-haired boy exclaimed before Sora could disappear from his sight. The brunet turned to look at him, quizzically. "My name. You asked." he added quickly, in an apologetic tone.

"It was nice to meet you, Riku. See ya." Sora had just the time to say, before Seifer dragged him out of the cafeteria, leaving him to wonder why he had felt the need to tell that strange boy his name.

He took a moment to look around him: a few people quickly looked away, while a group of girls were confabulating between them. He may have said it just to have him out of the way, but what he had said about not being a good idea for Sora to be seen around him was the absolute truth. High school was like a food chain: what determines if you're at the top like Seifer or at the bottom like himself is your reputation, and sitting and talking with the gay loser of the school was not exactly the best way to earn points.

Whatever, class was starting and he couldn't afford to be late. He stood up and slowly walked out of the cafeteria, for once too focused on his encounter with that strange, tiny and definitively surprising boy to care about the whispers that reached him from behind.

* * *

**End Notes**: ...and this was Chapter 1. Please, remember to review: it means a lot to an author and it's always kind of disappointing to see someone favorite a fic without leaving a review. Anything from 'I liked it' to a detailed description of what I did wrong or right would be great. Thanks a lot.

**Preview**: Sora is back with his friends, but Riku definitively left an impression on him. Too bad Kairi has other projects in mind...

**Next chapter (02.08.2020): Magnet Spiral**


	2. Magnet Spiral

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own chocolate fountains or extremely expensive gemstones.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments**, **the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings**, **very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, occasional mixes of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Author's notes**: I'm really glad that the first chapter was well received with a few great reviews. It may not seem much, I know, but there's nothing like a few words of encouragement for a writer. Thank you again and have fun with Chapter 2 ;).

**Reviewers**:

\- _Logan Jindrak X_: Thanks a lot, I tend to focus a lot (even too much) on dialogues, so it's good to know that someone appreciates that. As for the brunet/brunette thing... don't really know, but I've seen it used both ways, so I stick to the one that seems more correct to me.

\- _SilverHairedAngel_: You're quickly becoming one of my bestest reviewers, glad you liked all three of my stories. And yep, I write only High School AU, I like too much that setting, I try to focus on different aspects each time, however. Thanks a lot as usual, great to have you on board for this ride (and, rest assured, it will be a wild one ;).

\- _Theblackcoat_: So cool to see you back, it's been a long time! Your reviews are always detailed, thanks a lot. You're right, it felt strange at the beginning to write Sora and Riku this way, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, I'm simply trying to focus on different sides of their characters.

\- _LitteralFandomTrashXD_: It's always a pleasure to meet new people, glad you're liking this story. And glad to play a part in postponing your impending doom ;).

\- _Guest_: ...and here we go!

* * *

**Chapter 2: Magnet Spiral**

Sora was sitting quietly on the edge of the window of his literature class. Despite being the five minutes break between classes, he was unusually quiet, for once letting his friends talk and choosing to focus on his own thoughts. Which in the last hours had happened to revolve around the boy that he had met that same morning.

_'Riku... What a strange guy.'_

"So-o-ora, are you listening?"

Kairi's high pitched voice brought him abruptly down on Earth. "Uh, sorry, can't say I was. What did you say?"

She sighed. "No wonder everyone calls you sky-boy... I asked if you remember our date this afternoon."

At the brunet's quizzical expression, the girl sighed again, but her voice betrayed a trace of excitation. "This afternoon? Shopping? Buying some clothes? Something new to wear for Larxene's party? Any of that ring a bell?"

"Oh, was it today?" a far less enthusiastic Sora replied. "Do you really need me for that? And... wait, was it a date?" he asked without the slightest trace of embarrassment in his voice.

Kari blushed slightly. Or at least pretended to do so. "Oh, come on, you promised. It will be fun!"

Somehow, Sora doubted it. For once, he hated to go shopping, for second, there was a problem in the company. He was the kind of guy who could make friends with everyone and it wasn't like he had something against Kairi. But, for some reasons, he just couldn't help but feeling uncomfortable around her. It felt like he had to always weigh all of his words, like she could use something he says against him at any moment.

"You're not nice, Sora!" she said, uselessly trying to sound disappointed. Then her expression changed slightly. A nearly imperceptible change, but Sora caught it all the same. "Anyway..." she started innocently. "I saw you talking to Riku this morning..."

"Yep, what about it?" he asked, not really liking the girl's tone of voice.

"Nothing." She smiled viciously. "I was just wondering what did you find so interesting about him..."

But he didn't have the time to answer, being interrupted by the sudden arrival of a tall muscular blond boy.

"Ah, just the man I was looking for!" Seifer smiled. A shark-like smile.

His authoritative voice boomed in his ears, but Sora felt relieved at the change of subject and pretended not to see Kairi pouting next to him. "Kairi!" He grinned. "Seifer is looking for you."

The girl's face transitioned from pouting to frowning so quickly that Sora decided it was better to cut it short with the jokes. "Hey, Seifer, what are you doing here, you didn't take literature classes, right?"

The blond boy looked around him, analyzing his surroundings. "So, you really did it in the end."

"Yeah, it wasn't easy, but I survived a full year listening to prof. Zexion." Sora answered, pretending not to realize what Seifer was talking about.

"Don't play dumb, you talked to Riku this morning."

Once again, Sora was starting to feel unease. He had thought to have left that awful feeling in his old school, never to be experienced again, but here it was again. He shook off his head a few bad memories. "Really? I didn't realize it by myself, thanks for telling me." From the corner of his eye, he could see Kairi smiling viciously.

Seifer exploded in an over-the-top laughter. "Oh, man, you're so funny. That's what I like most about you." The brunet relaxed a little at those words. "Just out of curiosity..." the tall boy continued, exhibiting his smile once more. "Did Riku already made a move on you?"

Sora's heart skipped a beat. What did that sentence mean? "A... move?"

Kairi got closer to Sora's ears and started talking in a conspiratorial tone. "Riku is gay, didn't you know it?"

For a few seconds, a freezing silence descended upon the three of them. Sora was the one to interrupt that uncomfortable moment. "Wait, that's... that's just not possible. He doesn't look... feminine at all..."

"It's not like it's our opinion, you know? He himself admitted it."

The brunet looked at the two of them, suspiciously. Sora had managed to make himself pass off as kind of a simpleton, but in truth his actions had always been far more calculating than what it looked like. At that moment, though, the mask of the trusting, simple and naïf boy was completely gone, just to leave place to a doubtful and untrusting Sora. "Come on, you're just making stuff up to mess with me."

"If you don't believe us, just ask anyone else. They will tell you the same." Seifer's grin was wider than ever. "Of course, I would understand if you want to retreat from..."

"No!" Sora exclaimed firmly, without hesitation.

Kairi studied the two of them, unable to understand what the two boys were talking about. "'Retreat from...' what, precisely?"

But her question was fated to stay unanswered, as prof. Zexion chose that moment to come back to his class, not-much cordially brushing away the outsiders that didn't belong in that class, Seifer included.

The brunet peacefully regained his place, luckily enough on the farthest row from Kairi. When he finally reached it, he was welcomed by a blond short boy.

"What did you say to Kairi to piss her off that much?" Roxas asked calmly.

"You could tell her mood from here?" Sora replied, not really surprised at the other boy' observation skills. Despite being only a few days from his arrival on that school, he had already noticed Roxas' surprising ability to assess situations quickly. He liked him, he was calm, reserved and felt like someone he could trust.

Of their group, he didn't feel comfortable around Kairi, and Seifer was way too much competitive for his tastes. Axel and Saïx spent most of the time by themselves and he had never really got the occasion to do more than circumstantial talk with Larxene and Hayner.

Roxas, on the other side, had been the first one he had spoken to. And not only in their circle of friends, but in the whole school, not to say he was the one to introduce him to their group. He struck him as a kind of shy and reserved guy, somehow out of place compared to the others.

And so, Sora felt that he could trust him to get the answers that he wanted.

"Roxas... do you know a guy named Riku?"

Sora observed carefully his friend's reactions, but the only thing he noticed was his smile dropping.

"Sure."

Considering that it didn't look like he would spill anything else spontaneously, Sora decided to quickly get to the point. "Is he gay?"

Roxas looked away. "Yep, he is. Why do you care?"

Well, that was a good question. In fact, Sora knew way too well the answer to that question, but he decided that it was better to avoid answering directly. "I just wanted to double-check. I take what Seifer says with a grain of salt."

"That's quite nice of you." Roxas retorted, getting his smile back. "I take what Seifer says and throw it in a trash can, usually."

Sora found himself laughing sincerely.

He spent the rest of the lesson talking with his deskmate of all and nothing: after all, he had already listened for a whole hour to prof. Zexion, his mind wasn't ready to endure an encore.

An hour later, the suffering finally ended. Roxas had offered to go drink something after school, but the brunet had to reluctantly decline: Kairi was waiting for him and he had the certainty that she wouldn't accept a refusal as an answer.

And so he had reached her and was now walking through the roads of Twilight Town.

"You see?" the girl chirped in an excited voice grabbing the boy's arm. "After two hours of literature, you finally got your prize and got to hang out with me."

"As to say from the frying pan to the brace..." he smiled, making it looks like a joke, even if it was a pretty accurate reflection of his actual feelings.

"First of all I want to go check some new clothes at 'Rinoa's'." Kairi kept blabbering without really paying attention to Sora's words. Or, again, pretending to do so.

"Whatever." he quickly answered, not really caring where they were heading for and hoping that in half an hour top they could get over with that.

* * *

"Hey, boy, are you alright?"

Riku shook himself, unsure what to answer to the unknown man who had addressed him. What did he want? Why was he talking to him?

"I was starting to worry, you were spacing out for a while." the man added, answering the boy's unspoken questions.

"I'm fine." he finally answered before walking away. He was clearly irritated to have been disturbed, then again, he had to admit that a teenager who had spent the last ten minutes staring in front of the window of a jewelry was a little bizarre, not to say suspect.

Not that he was interested in the jewels on display, of course. But, as in all the rest of the day, Riku was finding more and more difficult to stay focused on something without his mind starting to float elsewhere. More precisely to the boy he had met that same morning. Everything around him was making him think of him: a chocolate fountain in a shop, a bizarre cloud in the sky and now a blue topaz, the same color as those troublesome eyes.

_'Come on, man! Stop thinking about him: he's a bad, bad guy and you hate him, remember?'_

But despite all of his efforts, the smiling face of the brunet kept popping in his head. He was sure that if he had kept going on like that, he would have started to get visual hallucinations of him. In fact, he was already starting to get auditory ones: he could perfectly hear that irritating, slightly high-pitched voice of his calling his name.

_'Wait a sec...'_

Riku turned back just in time to see, much to his horror, Sora running towards him all the while yelling his name.

"Riku! Man, it's great to see you!"

The silver-haired boy looked at him, without the slightest idea of what could he want from him. The second he reached him, though, he lowered the volume of his voice considerably.

"Please, save me! It's been two hours that Kairi is dragging me around shops to buy stuff!".

Riku looked at the begging brunet icily. Not only he had the guts to keep on talking to him, but he was even asking for his help. Why should he help him?

The familiar voice of a girl reached them, making him unconsciously grit his teeth. "Sora, don't leave me alone like that, how do you think I can carry..."

Kairi stopped mid-sentence when she realized who the brunet was talking to. Her smile instantly disappeared from her face. "Riku, it's been ages, what a pleasure to see you."

She was clearly lying, the reason why the two of them hadn't talked to each other in months was because she had started avoiding him since 'The Day', more precisely from the moment he had been outed.

Riku didn't even bother to answer. The situation was awkward, but he didn't want to make it easier for her.

Same as that morning, Sora was smiling widely, totally oblivious of the tension between the two of them, his eyes darting forth and back, waiting for someone to say something. Considering nothing like that was going to happen, chose that moment to play his card. "I'm really sorry, Kairi! I had forgot that I promised Riku to spend the afternoon with him to... uhm..."

He looked at the upperclassman, his big blue eyes begging for help. Riku sighed. "To help me find a birthday gift for my brother, remember?"

"That! Precisely!" Sora confirmed.

Kairi was glaring at Riku so intensely that he doubted she had really listened to a single word. Nevertheless, after a few interminable seconds of staring at each other, the girl simply gave up.

"Alright then, see you tomorrow, Sora." And without saying another word, she just walked away.

Riku was ready to do the same, but it didn't seem like the other boy had any intention of leaving him alone.

"Thanks, I owe you one." he said, trotting happily behind the upperclassman. "So... what are we going to buy for your brother?"

"I don't have a brother, I'm an only child." Riku kept walking, without bothering to face Sora. "And Kairi knows that really well."

"So you lied! That's not really nice, you know?"

"I could fill a book with all the 'not-really-nice-stuffs' Kairi did to me, 'you know?'"

"Well, you should show her that you're better than her, then, don't you think?"

At those words, Riku stopped walking: Sora was starting to sound a little too much like his mother for his tastes. He didn't turn to look at him: he knew that if he had met again his eyes he might have given in. "Don't you have somewhere else to go? I'm sure people like Seifer are dying to spend their time with you."

As an answer, Sora walked past him and turned around, forcing the older boy to look at him. "I thought you said it wasn't your choice to spend your time all by yourself. I'm just returning the favor of saving me by keeping you company." he answered grinning.

"That doesn't mean that I like having you around." That last sentence came out a little bit too abruptly, even for Riku's standards. When he saw that the smile on the younger boy had completely disappeared from his face, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

"...it's ok then. I'm sorry, I didn't think I was bothering you. I'll leave you alone, if that's what you want. Thanks anyway."

When he realized that Sora was walking away, Riku instinctively grabbed his arm. "Wait!"

The brunet obeyed immediately, surprised by the strength of the grip. Riku let go of his arm immediately.

"I... I mean..." Damn, why was that boy making him feel that much uneasy? "You can come with me if you want, but I don't think you'd like where I'm going." he finally added, resigned.

But Sora's face was already glowing with joy. Without adding anything else, the older boy resumed walking, the brunet peacefully following behind.

* * *

**End** **Notes**: And that's the end of Chapter 2. For those who are not used to my style, with the exception of _Dearly_ _Beloved_, I usually write my stories from different points of view. Sora, in particular, is kind of peculiar, as he is seen as kind of spontaneous from other characters while, in truth, he is quite scheming when the POV shifts on him.

Until next chapter.

**Preview**: Sora and Riku are finally spending some time together. But what will happen when Sora discovers where Riku wants to bring him?

**Next chapter (07.08.2020): A Game of Trust**


	3. A Game of Trust

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own an arcade, though I'd really like to.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _SilverHairedAngel_: Maybe Sora will be a little nervous... or maybe not. Any case what he has discovered will play a role, that's for sure ;). See you... Eliza?

\- _Theblackcoat_: Ahahah, quite the change, uh? I hope I'm not going too much OOC, though. I won't lie: the stuff with Seifer won't be revealed soon, but it will indeed, just wait. And... man, I didn't think at all at that, but a gay pub would've been way too much for them. And don't worry, your review was so kind that I'll anticipate next chapter by a week, ok? Consider it my way of saying "thank you".

\- _FireScorby_: Indeed, I will :).

* * *

**Chapter 3: A Game of Trust**

When Riku finally reached his destination, he couldn't help but smile a little. Sora had kept on trotting behind him until that moment, but he had suddenly stopped at the sight of the huge neon sign over the main door.

"An arcade? Seriously?" the brunet muttered.

The upperclassman turned his head a little and looked at the boy standing mouth-agape. He was satisfied: that was not a place you wanted to be seen when you were on the group of the 'popular kids'. He was sure that he would've found an excuse not to go in there. "I understand how you feel. If you want to go home..."

But he stopped talking mid-sentence when he realized that a huge, childish smile was worming his way on Sora's lips.

"An arcade... I can't believe it..." It looked like the younger boy was on the verge of crying. "It's been years since I've been to one, that's amazing."

Riku looked at him, confused. "You mean... that you want to go in?"

"How can you think that I don't want to?" the brunet replied, sincerely surprised. An instant later he had already surpassed the other boy and was gazing in awe at the various coin-ops lined on the wall.

Riku was standing there, on the entrance of the arcade, too shocked to really do anything. Arcades were -to quote Seifer- 'stupid stuff for kids'. He couldn't believe someone like Sora could really like that.

But the surprise quickly left place to another thought, a lot more disturbing.

And an instant later, he was marching inside the building, walking straight towards a certain brunet who was waiting patiently behind a kid for his turn to play. He grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to look at him.

_'These eyes...'_ For a moment, Riku hesitated. Just for a moment. "Alright, what's your game?" he asked in all seriousness.

A look of confusion was plastered on Sora's face. He gestured at the coin-op the little kid was playing and answered calmly. "Pac-Man, don't you see?"

"Don't mock me." Riku replied. "What do you really want from me?"

Sora slightly tilted his head to the side. "Are you doubting that I'm here to play some games?"

"I'm doubting that you have ulterior motives."

At those words, Sora's grin creeped back on his face. "Then are you implying that I'm here because I just want to spend time with you?"

Riku was taken aback by that statement. He felt a hot rush rising up on his cheeks and he internally swore at his pale complexion.

"Well, can't say it's a wrong guess." the brunet continued, managing to make Riku's embarrassment even more obvious. "But as much as I could appreciate your company, I have to disappoint you: I'm here for the games. You can say I'm kind of a fan of these stuffs."

The silver-haired boy took a moment to pull himself back together. He still didn't believe the brunet, but he had an easy way to check if he really was a nerd in disguise. A really cute and huggable nerd, he had to admit it.

Wait, what? No, no! Sora was detestable, and Riku hated his guts. He felt the need to remember himself that.

"Alright then, if you're that much of a geek, prove it." At Sora's interrogative look, he kept going. "If you can manage to beat me in a challenge, I'll believe you. It shouldn't be that much difficult if you really are that big of a 'fan of these stuffs', right?"

He was sure that he would have given up, probably searched for some excuses to refuse the challenge. After all, even if there was no way Sora could know it, Riku was the holder of half of the records in the arcade. Pac-Man included.

But, surprisingly, the small boy smiled enthusiastically and took the place that the kid had just left empty moments earlier. "You want to go first?" Sora asked kindly.

Riku grinned, pointing at the high score list that was running on the screen. The first place's score was well higher than the second one and the three-letters name next to it was reading R-I-K. "I'm already first, as you can see."

He savored the moment of Sora looking at him in awe, before taking out a quarter and slid it inside the black device. He took place to his right side to enjoy the show.

From his experience, there were two main ways to play video-games: the first one was to rush through every level to get as far as possible in the shortest time, the second was to spend your time carefully collecting every single item appearing on the screen, thus making as many points as possible. After the first few levels, he realized that Sora belonged to the latter category, as he was observing him running in circle, uselessly trying to collect a bonus melon that had just popped on the screen.

"Going after the fruit, uh?"

Surprisingly, Sora let go of the joystick, consequently crashing into a ghost and thus costing him a life. Riku looked at him, surprised by that strange reaction, while the brunet was restarting the level. He didn't say anything, but he noticed that his face had taken a slight tint of red.

_'He's... blushing?'_ he asked himself. A second later, he realized the unintentional double meaning of his question. _'Wait, to react that way... does it mean that he knows about me liking guys?'_

In the end, Sora didn't manage to top Riku's record, just as predicted. Still, he got a lot closer than the silver-haired boy had expected.

"Aww, you're too good, man." Sora was pouting, like a small kid whose favorite toy had just broken. Riku thought of that as adorable. And again, he scolded his treacherous mind for thinking so.

"You weren't half-bad." he admitted. "With your way of playing you could have seriously beat me."

"Ah, I was sure you were a speedrunner. Which makes even more impressive your high score."

And that was the definitive proof that he needed: Sora really was a little nerd. His way of playing, thinking and talking gave him away. It still baffled him how someone like that had managed to get accepted by Seifer and his gang. Right, Riku was kind of a geek himself, but he had always managed to keep carefully hidden this embarrassing side of his. If there was something that he was good at, after all, was keeping things hidden from others. Sora, on the other side, didn't strike him as the kind of person able to hide something.

"Oh, there's a bar in here. Let's go drink something."

Riku sighed and followed the hyperactive boy, watching him order two cups of coffee. His original plan was to bring him here so that he would quickly bore himself and go away, but it looked like the plan had spectacularly backfired.

"This place is great, you come here often?"

"Occasionally." A part of his mind told Riku to stop lying and tell him that coming there after school was part of his daily routine. A quick play, something to drink and then straight back at home, doing homework and watching some stupid tv series. But another part was telling him to try and preserve that little bit of dignity that he had managed to keep during last year.

Sora, from his side, didn't seem to care in the slightest. "You should call me next time you want to come here." he then checked the time on his phone. "In a few minutes I'll have to go, the last bus to get home will come in fifteen."

The upperclassman shivered at those words. If his and Sora's last bus would both come in fifteen minutes, that would mean...

"Please, tell me it's not the 13th..."

Sora's blue eyes shone with joy. "Yes, it is. Where do you live?"

"Alley to Between, you?" _'I swear, if I discover that he's my neighbor, I'll kill me. Or him.'_

Sora put the cup of coffee back on the table and the smile on his face dropped a little. "Avenue to Dreams. It's a few stops before yours if I'm not wrong."

Well, always better than having him living on the same road, Riku thought. Even if that was the road Roxas, his sworn enemy, also lived in. He finished sipping his coffee and left a few bucks on the counter, before standing up. When he realized that Sora wasn't behind him, he turned his head. "So, you coming?"

The boy smiled and followed him.

* * *

As usual, Riku was gazing out of the window, sitting in the last row of the bus number 13. Nothing unusual, if not for the fact that, for the first time in longer than he could remember, someone was occupying the place next to his.

"How comes that I've never seen you on the school-bus at morning?"

Sora paused a few seconds before answering. "Uh? I don't take it, usually." he then said elusively. Riku wondered how he got to school, but his rational side reminded him that he shouldn't care about him. Not that much.

"Next stop: ATD!" the speaker announced in a mechanical voice.

"Oh, it's mine!" the brunet exclaimed, hastily checking his bag and pushing the red 'stop' button. Just before going down, though, he came back and grabbed Riku's wrist. It was so fast that the other boy didn't have the time to retreat it.

"What... what are you doing?" he asked while adding a mental note to stop blushing anytime Sora got that close to him.

The brunet didn't answer immediately, intent as he was on writing a few numbers on the palm of his left hand.

"Phone number." he finally answered just a second before getting out of the bus. "Otherwise how could you tell me when you'll go to the arcade next time?" Riku could just catch a small glimpse of the boy as the doors closed between the two of them. "See you tomorrow for breakfast." were the last words that he heard.

Yeah, sure, after half a day spent with that irritating boy, there was no way he would've wanted a repeat of that. Not that soon at last.

A few stops later, he was finally at home. After spending a considerable part of the evening carefully avoiding showing his parents the contents of his left hand (seriously, he could perfectly imagine the enthusiastic reaction of his mom at the remote possibility that he had found a boyfriend, not that Sora was or could be considered anything like that, of course), he spent an equal amount of attention to carefully copying the number on his own phone. Just in case of, he kept repeating on himself.

And then, when he finally managed to go to bed, relieved to be able to finally put an end to that extenuating day, he found himself unable to sleep, his left wrist keeping on tingling despite having washed it multiple times. Sora must have had some chemicals on his hands, that was the conclusion he reached. He promised himself to check Sora's body at the first occasion. In search of said chemicals, of course. But for the moment, what he needed was a nice, good rest.

If only his wrist would stop tingling...

* * *

**End Notes**: Quite a difficult chapter to write, I'm still struggling using Sora and Riku this way. Let me know if you find them a little bit out of character, I'll be happy to send you a PM... to explain you why you're wrong ;).

**Preview**: Sora tries to confront Roxas and Riku about what happened between the two of them, but neither of them seems enthusiastic about it...

**Next Chapter (14.08.2020): Antithetic Duo**


	4. Antithetic Duo

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do have, however, a brother who owns a sport car and drive it the same way as Cloud.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _Shiranai_ _Atsune_: Hey, so happy that you liked my other fics, can I ask you what else did you read?

\- _Logan Jindrak X_: Thanks for the review.

\- _SilverHairedAngel_: Glad you had the same thoughts as Riku, that means that the way the character act is, at very least, believable. By the way, you should create an account, that way we could get private message you, think about it :).

\- _LitteralFandomTrash_: And I sure got excited to have you back in the reviewers :). Thanks a lot, see you.

\- _Theblackcoat_: Thank you so much for your review. There are multiple reasons as to why I wanted to make Riku and Sora kinda... nerdy, one of those was to have something they could relate on, for the others... you'll just have to wait and see ;)

\- _FireScorby_: Ahahah, don't worry, no problem. And... yes, little nerdy Sora is adorable.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Antithetic Duo**

Tuesday morning. A sport car was running through the roads of Twilight Town at least thirty miles/hour over the limit. A muscular boy in his early twenties with spiky blond hair was driving and yawning, his left elbow stretching out of the car window and his right hand nonchalantly controlling the steering wheel.

Sitting behind him, two boys a few years younger were struggling not to fall asleep.

"Sora! You're drooling on me!" Roxas elbowed the small brunet, whose head was peacefully resting on his shoulder.

Sora yawned and tried to regain a semblance of dignity. "Sorry, Rox, I didn't sleep a lot last night. And to think this afternoon I also have a match..."

The boy couldn't help but roll his eyes. "I can't really understand what's so interesting in a sport as stupid as Struggle. It can be resumed as 'hitting people with bats'."

"Are you kidding?" the brunet answered incredulous, immediately shaking any trace of sleepiness off. He couldn't believe that there was someone on the planet unable to perceive the beauty of that sport. "Struggle is a highly strategic game and like the best thing ever happened since... since..."

"The plague epidemic?" Roxas suggested innocently.

And Sora pouted. For three whole seconds at least, then he started again to praise Struggle's supposedly virtues, much to Roxas' disdain.

"You should try it, seriously." he finally concluded after a long tirade. "They are holding tryouts tomorrow, you'd be a nice addition to the team."

"I'll think about it." the blond boy answered, not having the slightest intention of doing something more than just _think_ about it. "...but I don't exactly have the 'physique du role' for that."

"Neither do I, your point being?"

He sighed, realizing that discussing with his friend was perfectly useless. For the following ten minutes he kept on listening to a seemingly endless tirade about why he had to absolutely try to get on the Struggle team. In the end, the only way he had found to make Sora stop was to promise him that he would have come see his game that afternoon.

The driver left the two of them at the entrance of Twilight High a moment later and then the red car quickly disappeared at the horizon.

"It's nice of your brother to give us a ride every morning."

"The school is on the way to Cloud's work place, it's not like it's a big deal for him." Roxas checked the time on his phone. "Let's go have breakfast, the others should already be there."

"Uh, sorry." Sora answered apologetically. "I told Riku I would have breakfast with him." When the blond boy didn't answer, the brunet kept on talking. "Why don't you come with us?"

But he could clearly see Roxas stiffening at that proposition. "...I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Why not? What could happen?"

"If I get closer than fifty feet from Riku? My nose takes the risk of breaking. On his fist." He was trying to look funny, but it was painfully clear that there was something more serious beyond the whole story.

"What happened between the two of you?" Sora asked as innocently as he could.

Silence.

"Don't feel like telling me?"

"Nothing worth mentioning, I guess." the blond boy finally answered, averting Sora's gaze.

"You know, if Riku did something bad to you I could talk to him."

Roxas looked at his friend and smiled. A sad smile. "Do you really think he did something like that?"

He observed Sora putting his hands behind his head and looking at the sky. He had the habit to do that when he was reflecting. "I don't know." he finally answered. "It strikes me as a nice guy, but I may be wrong." He then looked straight at Roxas' eyes, clearly embarrassing him. "Hey, Rox?"

"Uh?"

"Have you ever taken a liking to the wrong person?"

"I'm never wrong about people. And I got the feeling that it's the same for you."

* * *

Sitting at his usual spot at the cafeteria, sharing company with his usual cup of coffee, Riku was keeping on looking around him. The central table was filled with just six people: Roxas and Sora weren't there yet. The thought that the brunet wouldn't come had crossed his mind a few times, but from what little he knew about him, Riku was sure that any moment he would have appeared from behind him and said something like...

"You were keeping a place for me? That's unusually nice for you."

He turned his head to see the small boy grinning widely and holding a single glass of chocolate milk and two slices of pizza on a small tray. Without bothering to wait for an answer, he took the free seat.

"I wasn't keeping it for you, this place is always free." Riku felt the need to specify. "And it was supposed to stay so."

"I thought we'd decided to have breakfast together this morning."

"No. You decided without bothering to ask if I was alright with that."

"Oh, so you want me to leave? And I even bought some pizza for you..." Sora asked, pretending to be hurt by those words.

"...shut up and sit already."

Sora smiled and obeyed without a word. As long as he didn't talk too much, he could endure his company, Riku thought. More importantly, he could show Kairi and Seifer that the popular new boy preferred his company instead of theirs. Yes, that was the reason he had let Sora sit there. Definitely not because he was starting to appreciate having him around.

He looked once more towards Seifer's table, only to realize that Roxas had reached them and... wait, was he wrong or that little bastard was just staring at them? He had averted his gaze the second Riku had looked at him, but he was certain to have caught him doing that. His fists clenched involuntarily and Sora didn't fail to catch that.

"Something's wrong, Riku?"

His voice made him come back to reality. It had always been that musical?

"Nothing. Just a little piece of shit whose insignificant existence keeps reminding me why I hate this school and everyone in it." The words were out before he could stop them, realizing too late that showing Sora his inner feelings was the last thing he wanted. Especially that kind of feelings.

The brunet looked at the general direction Riku was glaring. "Are you talking about Roxas, right?"

The upperclassman stiffened: Sora had guessed it perfectly right. He turned his head to look at the brunet and tried to sustain the gaze, but he found himself surprised by the decisiveness that he saw behind those deep blue eyes. "What if I was?"

"What's going on between the two of you?"

"Why do you think there's something going on between the two of us?"

"Would you stop answering every one of my questions with another question?"

That got him. He quickly looked the other way around, staring at the wall like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "It's... complicated." he finally said. "Nothing worth talking about, anyway."

After a couple more seconds, Sora closed his eyes, took his glass of chocolate milk and ended it in a single gulp. "Roxas said the exact same things, you know." For some reasons, that irritated Riku even more. "But it's okay if you don't want to talk about it, it's your business after all."

Riku thought that Sora was right, but at the same time he found surprising how easily he had given up inquiring about the subject. At least he had a few redeeming qualities.

"Oh, on another note, do you have plans for this afternoon?" the brunet asked, out of the blue.

"Maybe." Riku answered elusively, despite knowing way too well how desperately empty his agenda was.

"Thought so. You know, I'm on the Struggle school-team and we'll have an exhibition match this afternoon, why don't you come see it? I don't know how much you know about Struggle, but if you'll like it, you could take part in tomorrow's tryouts."

Riku shivered at those words: a few uncomfortable memories of the time he was on a sport team flashed back to his mind, noticeably those spent in the changing room after 'The Day'. "I had planned to go to the arcade." he concluded, stating the absolute truth.

"That's not a problem: the match will be around 4 o'clock, we'll have the time to go there after it."

"'We'?"

"If you come see my game, I'll come with you to the arcade."

"And that's supposed to motivate me because..." That earned Riku a small pout of annoyance from Sora. And Riku couldn't help but found it really cute. "I'll think about it." he finally added, not having the slightest intention of doing something more than _think_ about it.

The brunet blinked at those words. "It's impressive how similar you and Roxas actually are, you two keep giving me the exact same answers..."

_'Don't even try to go there.'_ the silver-haired boy thought. "...alright, I'll come. Only this afternoon!" he added immediately after. "I don't have the slightest intention to join a sport team."

"That's a shame." Sora replied, eyeing him. "Looks like you have the perfect build for that, you could be great at it."

And again with the blush! At this point, Riku was starting to suspect that the brunet was trying to embarrass him on purpose. Thinking about it, though, he was right: Struggle was quite the physical sport, most of the people in there were quite well-built, how could a small cute boy like Sora, who looked like he would weigh little more than fifty pounds, be part of that team?

The usual school bell interrupted the flow of his thoughts. Sora quickly took all of his stuffs and started walking towards his friends, but not before remembering Riku the time and place of the Struggle match.

Well, at least he would see with his own eyes how that scrawny brunet could manage to be on the team.

* * *

**End Notes**: So, here's a chapter about Riku and Roxas mutual feelings. Hope you liked it and... I don't want to beg, but please, if the story isn't so bad and it made you smile a little bit, leave me a little review, I really need feedback to try and improve my writing. Pretty please?

**Preview**: The game is on: Sora's exhibition match has started! And Riku finds itself confronting an old friend...

**Next Chapter (21.08.2020): Burning Sparks**


	5. Burning Sparks

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do own, however, a copy of the KH2 manga from which I took inspiration for the Struggle rules as described in this chapter. Baby steps, I guess...

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _Arika_ _Koski_: Nope, nothing like that, sorry to disappoint :P.

\- _SilverHairedAngel_: Eh, you're probably right, not a lot of juice in the last chapter. This one too may not bring a lot more to the table, but it will set the stage for something really important later on. And, unfortunately, I don't have discord.

\- _LitteralFandomTrash_: Lol, thanks a lot for appreciating my efforts.

\- _Theblackcoat_: Oh, I'm so happy you noticed! Yes, that pretty much sums up how the story will continue. Also, Cloud will indeed play a role in the future but... not as important as you guessed, sorry to disappoint.

\- _FireScorby_: More Riku and Roxas in this chapter, as requested ;).

* * *

**Chapter 5: Burning Sparks**

Struggle is the most stupidest sport. That was the first thing Roxas thought that afternoon, when the game started and he found himself stuck on the stands of the school's stadium with Axel, Kairi, Larxene and Hayner. There weren't a lot of people that day, most probably because it was just an exhibition match, twenty people tops if he had counted correctly. Still, he didn't fail to notice, just a few rows under them, a familiar, lonely, silver mane.

"Look who's there." Kairi's high-pitched voice chirped, while she pointed at the same direction he was looking at. "Wanna bet he's here to stare at his boyfriend?"

It was so clear who she was referring to that she didn't even need to name them: everyone in their group had noticed that Sora was starting to spend a rapidly increasing amount of time with Riku. Why Kairi did care so much about that was beyond his comprehension, but Roxas reasoned that the fact that the brunet was showing to prefer her ex-boyfriend's company instead of hers mighty have played a part in that.

Hayner laughed at Kairi's joke. Perfectly predictable: Seifer hated Riku, ergo Hayner hated Riku.

"Jealous much?" Larxene asked, with one of her usual sharp-yet-snappy remarks. "I wonder of which of them, though..."

"Ah!" Kairi answered indignantly, turning his look away. "What's to be jealous of some gay boy?"

Larxene smirked: she lived for those things. "Someone has a guilty conscience? I was talking to Hayner."

Roxas couldn't help but grin. His attention, though, quickly shifted back to the boy a few rows under them.

"What's wrong, Rox? You look kinda gloomy." Axel asked him, sincerely curious.

The blond boy kept on looking at Riku. "Nothing, Ax. Just thinking."

"Happens to me too. A little bit of television and it's over, usually."

Roxas felt the need to punch him slightly on the shoulder, then he resumed staring at the upperclassman. Axel didn't fail to notice it. "Things could have gone differently with Riku, you know?"

Roxas didn't answer.

* * *

Struggle is not bad at all. That was the first thing Riku thought that afternoon. Well, the second thing, actually, the first one was that Sora looked really nice in the tight Struggle uniform. Not that he really understood what was going on at the beginning, not knowing Struggle rules may have played a role in that, but he managed to get an idea after the first couple of rounds.

It looked like games were composed of one-on-one matches. The players had to wear a suit and a headgear to which were attached a set of twelve small orbs. The rest was quite simple: each player was equipped with a bat and had to make fall to the ground all of the opponent's spheres. There was probably a time limit too, because he noticed that a few rounds had ended with the referee whistling, despite both players still having orbs on them.

He realized that Seifer was taking the field for the next match. For a moment, he had forgotten that the blond boy was part of the team too, nevertheless he watched with interest; after all there was the possibility to see him defeated, humiliated and, with a little bit of luck, even injured. He knew that wishing such things to people was bad, but the only thing his inner self could think was how bad it was that hits below the belt were forbidden...

Unfortunately for his expectations, Seifer was a beast. The second the referee had announced the beginning of the round, his poor adversary had found himself on the receiving side of a violent hit to the head. Helmets had to be quite resistant for that to be allowed, but considering the way the boy staggered after that first hit, he must have quite felt it. The match ended in less than thirty seconds, with Seifer not having lost a single orb and his opponent barely standing on his legs.

For a second, he thought how good would have been to be on the team, just to have an excuse to hit Seifer with a bat. He looked at the score, displayed on the huge scoreboard on the opposite side of the field: despite that last victory, Twilight High was losing six to four. Not that he really cared, he was there just to look at Sora. Ehr... at Sora's match. No, he was there because he had forced him, that was it.

The next player was someone else he knew: his long blue hair was perfectly visible under the helmet. Saïx, the Blue Oni, once his swimming teammate, was getting ready. Riku wondered when he had left the swimming team to reach the Struggle one. Of all the people in Seifer's group, he, Axel and Larxene were those he tolerated most, mainly because he didn't remember having directly been targeted by them.

His fighting style was quite different from Seifer's, definitely more technical. And despite his hits not looking as uselessly violent as the other guy, he was managing to make fall at least an orb from his adversary with every single hit.

"Saïx is not bad at all, isn't it?"

A familiar voice made Riku startle. He recognized it immediately, even if he hadn't heard it in months. "What do you want?" he asked, not really caring for the answer.

Axel took the place next to him, much to his displeasure. He was sporting his usual grin, which irritated Riku even more. "We've not talked for so long, you could be a little nicer..."

"It's not really my choice if we haven't talked for so long, you know?" Riku answered drily. He massaged his nose slightly. "I can't help but remember you and Saïx were still in the swimming team when Setzer broke my nose."

"Well, you dislocated his jaw with a punch, I didn't think you needed any help." Despite being the absolute truth, the way he had said it gave Riku the distinct feeling that the redhead was just making up excuses.

"That's the same reason you stopped answering your phone when I was calling you?"

Axel's smile dropped and he looked away uncomfortably. A brief silence ensued. "Well, you were at the center of the rumor mill, you know how these stuffs go... getting caught talking with you meant being targeted as well... It was... difficult."

"'It was difficult?'"

"Yeah, I mean..."

"IT WAS DIFFICULT?'" Riku was starting to increase the volume of his voice. He knew that he had probably earned the attention of all of the (few) people around him, but right now he didn't care at all. "While you were having your fun little life with your friends, I've been left alone and targeted in every possible way. So, don't you dare come here a year later and tell me how life was difficult for you!"

He looked away, feeling that if he had looked at his ex-friend any longer, he could have given in and making him eat his teeth.

"I'm not trying to justify myself." Axel tried again, clearly struggling to keep the tone of his voice low. "I made some mistakes and I'm sorry for that. Still, you didn't help."

At the hearing of those words, Riku glared at him. He didn't turn his head, a profile glare, but even if he didn't say a word, Axel caught the _'Come on, just give me an excuse to punch you, please' _meaning of that look all the same.

"I mean, I tried to call you a few weeks later, but you dismissed all of my attempts."

"You gave up trying a long time ago. Luckily. What makes you think that it would change something now?"

Axel scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Well, nothing, really. It's just... it's the first time I see you somewhere else than the cafeteria, I thought it was... a sign, you know. And so, I came talking: if you feel like doing something, don't wait. Act! One of life's little rules." He then looked back at the other boy. "I mean, maybe... we could discuss about what happened."

"But we're doing it, can't you see?"

Another silence, longer this time.

"Listen." Axel resumed after taking a deep breath. "I know it was wrong of me to disappear like that, I messed up. I'm not asking for forgiveness, ok? Even if it doesn't mean a lot now, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry and that I've got nothing against you, alright?"

But Riku's attention was back on the playing field. A scrawny brunet was entering, adjusting his uniform. Blue orbs were adorning him, making him looks like a little walking Christmas tree. He was there to watch that match, there was no way he would've let Axel distract him.

"Well, that's great, thanks a lot. I'm sure I can count on you now. At least until the next time someone will decide to pick on me because I'm... yeah, whatever."

When he realized that the discussion was over, the redhead said goodbye and went back to reach his friends.

"Oh, and another thing." Riku added without turning his head. "Tell Roxas that sending you to talk was just stupid."

* * *

The final round was finally starting.

As he had expected, most of the players were quite hunky, and Sora's opponent was no exception, which made Riku wonder once again how the small brunet could play that game and, apparently, also being quite good at it.

The second the referee whistled the beginning of the match, though, Riku found the answer to his questions: the big boy had launched himself against Sora, swinging furiously his bat trying to hit him.

And Sora...

Sora was a sight to see, a literal speed demon. He dodged the first, second, third swing of his opponent without showing the slightest difficulty in doing so: he could anticipate the movements of the other player and react accordingly. And then, after keeping on effortlessly dodging for a whole minute, he finally made his move. In the blink of an eye, he shifted to the right and delivered a very delicate yet precise hit at his opponent, making him lose half of his orbs.

Riku couldn't help but notice how the brunet was precisely using the exact number of moves needed, no more, no less. His entire body was perfectly synchronized and the way he moved had something magnetic to it.

A couple of minutes later, the match was over: Sora was standing triumphantly, all of his orbs untouched on his body. It didn't look like someone who had just emerged victoriously from a Struggle match: he seemed fresh and rested, probably ready to chain another two or three matches consecutively if necessary.

The crowd around him exploded. Riku looked at the scoring board: seven to six: Twilight High had won the exhibition match and Sora had scored the decisive point. He couldn't restrain himself from smiling and, for a moment, he thought of waiting for Sora to offer him his congratulations.

Then his eyes fell on the small group of students a few rows over him and he quickly remembered himself that he was happy as he was. He didn't need anyone, especially a little, insignificant brunet who had somehow managed to gain the sympathy of half of the school.

And, any case, who would never really care about him.

* * *

**End Notes**: Aaaand another pseudo-filler chapter without much of interactions between Sora and Riku, I know. Struggle will play an important role later in the story, though, just wait and see ;). Next chapter, you won't be disappointed, though :).

**Preview**: History has a strange way of repeating itself. When Riku finds himself in the same position as one year before, he decided to try and share a little bit of his past with Sora.

**Next Chapter (28.08.2020): Time and Again**


	6. Time and Again

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own the right to use flashbacks, but that won't stop me from abusing them here and there.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _OngakuDream_: Yay, it's so cool to see you again. Really happy that you're liking my story. And yeah, "cute" is what I'm aiming for...

\- _SilverHairedAngel_: Last chapter was a little slow? Let's see what do you think of this one, then :). And... wow, you're doing a Riku cosplay? Sounds amazing.

\- _Theblackcoat_: Eh, you may be onto something. And don't worry if it takes time to review, it's not like you have to (really appreciated nevertheless ;).

\- _Guest_: And thanks a lot.

\- _FireScorby_: No, I won't ;).

* * *

**Chapter 6: Time and Again**

_May, one year ago_

Riku was leaving the infirmary. For the third time in a week.

Luckily, nothing serious this time, just a little burn from a firecracker that someone had thought incredibly fun to throw at him. Classes were over for the day, but it was just three in the afternoon and the absence of rides made coming back home immediately not an option, so he simply decided to kill some time while waiting for the next bus.

The image of red and blue hair quickly flashed in the corner of his eye: he turned his head to see Axel and Saïx walking, most probably towards the swimming pool. They had a game that day, but Riku had already provided the coach with a half-assed excuse for not going there. 'Water allergy' was the best he had come up with.

It had been a whole week since 'The Day' and still, despite being on good terms with both of them, he had not found the occasion to talk to the two boys. In truth, a part of Riku knew that he was purposefully delaying that moment, in fear of their reaction, but he figured out that now was the right moment to face them.

After all, if they really were his friends, they would have supported him, right?

He took a deep breath and then quickly walked towards them, unusually shily, reaching them from behind. "Hey guys, uhm... how are you?"

The two boys winced at Riku's sight and he didn't fail to notice it. "Uhm... hey Riku, fine thanks." Axel answered clearly embarrassed. Saïx was keeping on looking around him, most probably to be sure that there was none around to see them talking with such a compromising company.

For a second, Riku thought about giving up and going back from where he came. But while his mind was telling him to turn back, his desperately hopeful legs were just keeping on following the two boys. An uncomfortable silence ensued, broken only by Axel's uncertain tone of voice when they got to the entrance of the swimming pool.

"Are you... coming with us?" More than a question, it looked like the expression of his most dreaded fear.

...so what? What did he have to lose, after all? If they really did not want him there, they just had to say it! None had expelled him from the swimming team, nor they had a motive to do so, he had every reason to be there! Those were the thoughts that crossed Riku's minds when he took the unfortunate decision to follow the two boys into the locker room.

The moment his other teammates saw him, the atmosphere froze. Everyone stopped moving and talking for a couple of seconds, then they quickly looked away, like nothing had happened. Or, more precisely, like Riku didn't exist.

Axel and Saïx quickly put a few steps of safe distance between them and Riku, but considering that their lockers were on the opposite side of his, he couldn't really blame them. Or, maybe, they were just scared that his 'water allergy' was being contagious...

He opened his locker carefully, managing to avoid being overwhelmed by the pink confetti that came off it. Well, always better than the death threats he had found in his school locker just the day before. He took his swim trunks and started undressing, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling of being at the center of the attention.

But just when he was ready and thinking that maybe things could have worked out in the end, he felt someone patting on his shoulder.

He turned to see a tall boy glaring at him. "Hey Setzer." Not that Riku had ever been scared of someone like him: he had pounded tougher guys into the pavement. No, he wasn't worried that the guy seemed eager for a fight, he was because of the possible reasons behind it.

"Hey yourself. What are you doing here?"

Riku sustained the gaze. "Maybe you didn't pay attention, but it's been a year since I've joined the swimming team." he answered mockingly.

Setzer didn't answer immediately and kept on glaring, clearly determined not to lose their staring contest. Finally, when he realized that Riku didn't plan on retreating on his own, he talked again. "Don't you think that some of us may find uncomfortable to have you keeping on playing for the team? You don't need to be a genius to understand that."

"Sure, it seems that your brain is more than enough." Despite the bold facade he was struggling to put up, Riku distinctly felt something breaking inside him. He forced himself to restrain the tears: he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

Still, he couldn't help but notice that none of his teammates, who were all looking at them, stepped in to say _'No, I don't find Riku's presence uncomfortable.'_ Not even Saïx or Axel, who were pretending nothing was happening.

And then, out of the blue, he felt a hard pain on his nose. A split second later he was on the ground, drying a trickle of blood from his nose. Setzer had punched him. Setzer. Had. Punched. Him.

He felt a sudden burst of rage quickly rising inside him: it wasn't the first time that someone had picked a fight with him, but the fact that it was one of his teammates was something else entirely. And without even realizing it, his fist clashed against Setzer's jaw.

That was the last time that Riku talked to any of the members of the swimming team. Axel and Saïx included.

That was the day Riku decided that he was better on his own.

* * *

_One year later, present day_

That evening, someone could have thought that the Pac-Man coin-op had done something really bad to Riku, considering the violence with which the silver-haired boy was moving the controller.

But that was just his way to blow off some steam, he was just unsure about why he felt the need to do so. He figured it had something to do with the Struggle match earlier that day, more precisely with the fact that Axel had had the guts to come and talk to him.

Or, maybe, but just hypothetically, Riku was feeling jealous because he was sure that Sora was celebrating the team's victory with his 'friends'.

No! Riku was happy on his own! In the end, friends would always end up betraying or abandoning you: what was the meaning of forming bonds with them? He slammed the controller so hard that he creaked dangerously, while his little yellow avatar crashed straight into a ghost, closing his game at a whopping twelve-thousand points, one of the lowest scores he had ever realized.

"I thought you were supposed to be good at this game... Are you sure that high-score is really yours?"

He recognized Sora's voice immediately and froze in place.

"What are you doing here?" he asked when he recovered from the surprise. And despite all of his efforts, he couldn't hide a timid smile.

The brunet looked at him, equally surprised. "What do you mean 'what are you doing here'? I'd told you that I'd come here if you'd come see my match."

He had said it? Yeah, Riku remembered to have heard something along those lines in the morning, but that was circumstantial talk, he didn't think that the brunet would have kept his word. More than that...

"How do you know I came to see your game?"

A moment of silence. "...Roxas told me."

Riku's grip on the coin-op controller tightened and Sora didn't fail to notice it. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

'It' meaning what had happened between him and Roxas, of course. Well, after all, why shouldn't he tell him? Just let him know what kind of scumbag the blond boy really was. Of course, that also meant admitting to Sora that he was... that he liked... "You really want to know?"

"Only if you feel like telling me, of course."

_'Sure, why not? Let's tell him everything. This way we'll see how much time it will take for him to disappear from my life like everyone else.' _Riku thought while looking at the clock. He gestured towards the bar. "...let's go take something to drink first."

They took place on a little table, far enough from the other customers to be sure not to be heard. Except for a group of five people, two guys and three girls who seemed to be around their age, the rest of the room was mostly filled with little kids and bored parents.

"Who are those guys?" Sora asked, once his place taken, pointing at the small group a few tables from them.

Riku reached him, holding a glass of water who promptly gave to the other boy and a small shot glass that he kept for himself. "A bunch of guys who are always here. More than that I don't know and I don't care."

The brunet emptied half of his glass in one single sip. "We should go talk to them, then."

"Forget it. And stop saying 'we'." Riku cut him short. He was feeling quite uneasy at the way Sora was looking at him, more precisely at his drink. "What?"

"That's my line." he answered. "What did you take?"

"Tequila." he cut him short. "If you really want me to go through all of what has happened, you can't expect me to do it sober."

"But that's not the way to do it!" Sora exclaimed indignantly.

Riku rolled his eyes. He had expected something like that. Now he would've had to endure a tirade about being bad drinking during the week, what with school and everything. Or, worse, maybe Sora was one of those perfect guys who didn't drink at all and were affected by 'The Red Cross Nurse Syndrome', also known as the constant need to persuade everyone around them to act the way they did.

Sora stood up abruptly and started marching away. For a moment, Riku thought that he was getting home. And for some reasons, he didn't feel happy about it. Then, he realized that he had directed himself towards the counter and was ordering something.

He didn't really have the time to think about it that the boy was back with five more shot glasses, identical to his own, and a small dish with a salt box and a few slices of lemon on it.

"Seriously, Riku!" Sora looked at him, clearly disappointed. "Drinking tequila without salt and lemon! That's blasphemy!"

Riku looked at him, mouth-agape and unable to hide his surprise. "Now, wait... why did you take five more glasses? What do you plan to..."

The brunet snickered while starting to equally share the glasses between the two of them. Then, nonchalantly, he licked his left hand on the intersection between his thumb and his point finger and urged Riku to do the same. He promptly obeyed, sure that, if he had refused, Sora would have directly licked his hand. He then proceeded to grab Riku's hand and started pouring some salt on it, finally doing the same with his own. "We need to celebrate my victory after all."

"In an arcade?" was Riku's predictable answer. He had meant to drink a shot to find a little bit of motivation to talk about personal stuffs, not to devastate himself. His left hand was already starting to tingle at the point Sora had touched it, damn boy and the strange chemicals he was most certainly covered in.

"Why not? There's not a rule that forbids you from drinking here, isn't it? As long as you're comfortable in here, I'm game."

Riku looked him up and down, wondering what could be crossing his mind: he was surely full of surprises. He looked at him raise his first shot and waiting. What now? What did he want?

"...cheers?" Riku proposed, unsure to what the other boy was waiting for.

Sora's face darkened. "How often did you drink tequila? You don't know the basics!" His voice wasn't one of mockery, he looked sincerely worried about Riku's apparent lacking in drinking knowledge.

Well, he had never been a heavy drinker, but he had had his fair share of parties. Before everyone else stopped inviting him, anyway.

After asking for his attention, the brunet proceeded to show Riku how 'tequila had to be drunk'. One time up, one time down, one time at the center and then finally down your throat, Riku repeated carefully the movements with his glass shot until he had learned them.

"Perfect!" Sora observed satisfied. He looked like a teacher who had managed to explain something basilar to one of their stupidest students. "Next we'll go for it, just remember, while you're doing it, you have to say: 'Arriba, abajo, al centro y adentro!'"

The upperclassman thought that that way of making a toast bordered on the ridiculous. Still, he discovered himself not really caring and, for the first time in a long time, smiling sincerely. The other boy stopped himself when he saw it.

"There! You should smile more often, it's the first time I see you doing that. Honestly, you look better this way."

"Shut up and take your shot!" Riku retorted, the smile still lingering on his face. "To your victory!"

And that was the beginning of the evening.

* * *

**End Notes**: So, hope you liked this chapter, is one of my personal fav up to this point. And for those wondering and/or caring: yes, I like drinking tequila. Let me know what do you think and see you next chapter.

**Preview**: The evening goes on. How and where will it end?

**Next Chapter (4.9.2020): Sky of the Beginning**


	7. Sky of the Beginning

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do have a friend that used to let me stay at his home after parties, though.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _OngakuDream_: Wow, thank you very much for the amazing review (more about Sora and Riku in this chapter btw ;). And yeah, Riku's not a total crybaby. As for Sora... well, that's a bit more complicated for him, guess you'll have to wait and see for yourself :).

\- _LitteralFandomTrashXD_: Eheheh, glad to make you happy, hope you'll enjoy this one too.

\- _FireScorby_: Lot of appreciation for Riku it would seem... you'll like this chapter :).

* * *

**Chapter 7: Sky of the Beginning**

"And so, and so -ahahah- I told him: 'No, Seifer that was cat food!' and that was the last time that Seifer stole my lunch."

"Oh, that's something I'd toootally picture Seifer doing." Sora was wobbling dangerously back and forth in his chair, laughing like crazy at Riku's stories. "Hey, hey, I'm telling you. It's bad they stopped talking to you. You're cool. No, seriously, you're cool."

"Nah, they didn't stop talking to me, I stopped talking to them." the silver-haired boy answered defiantly, crossing his arms and theatrically looking away. He still looked amused, though. "Who needs people? They are just a burden, a... a liability, that's the word. I'm better on my own."

Sora looked at him, turning surprisingly quickly to serious. "Really? A liability? That's what you think of me too?"

"What? No, you're my friend!" The words were out of his mouth before Riku could catch them. Nevertheless, a smile reappeared on Sora's face.

"You know, what we need now? Another Pac-Man contest!" the brunet proclaimed standing up and starting to walk towards the coin-op.

The silver-haired boy looked at him, finding extremely funny how he couldn't walk in a straight line. He noticed the barman, a man in his forties who also happen to be the owner of the arcade, looking severely at him.

"I'm sorry Cid, my friend is a little... tipsy." he cried, focusing as best as he could not to stutter.

"You don't look any better yourself, Riku!" the old man grumbled back. "Just remember that everything he breaks will be on your bill."

Riku quickly stood up to reach Sora, wondering why the room was spinning that much. The six tequilas and the fact that it had been nearly a year since the last time he had ingested some alcohol could have played a role in that. He wobbled carefully towards his friend who had already inserted a coin in the coin-op. And a second later he had already lost a life.

"Whaaaat?" the small boy asked, more to himself than to someone else. "The game had already started?"

And Riku laughed.

* * *

A few hours later, the two boys were walking on an isolated road, holding each other by the shoulders and singing at the top of their lungs 'Wonderwall'. Having lost their last bus hours ago, their only hope to get home was to rely on their legs and what was left of Riku's sense of direction.

"How much more, Riku?"

"Thirty minutes for you, an hour for me." the older boy answered completely unconcerned, despite not having the slightest idea at which distance from home they could possibly be. Granted, he was pretty sure that they were going towards the right direction, but also that Sora at the moment was not in the condition of keeping track of the flowing of time, the demonstration was that that was the third time in the last hour that he had given him that same answer.

The night was calm and the sky was starry. Riku couldn't help but notice how Sora's blue eyes were faintly shining in the darkness.

"What?" the brunet asked, noticing the other boy staring.

He looked away quickly. "I'm not staring!" he felt the need to precise.

That teasing smirk reappeared on Sora's face. "You know, I've noticed that you blush a lot."

"That's because you're embarrassing!" Riku blurted defensively. "And I'm not really used to people talking to me." Man, that sounded really whiny, even to himself.

Sora slowly stopped walking, catching the other boy's attention. "Hey, Riku. In the end, you didn't tell me what happened with Roxas?"

The silver-hair boy turned to face him, his face now dead serious, his attitude completely changed in the span of mere moments. "You really want to know?"

At Sora's nodding, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He resumed walking, but he started to talk.

"Roxas outed me."

Silence. Thirty steps later, Sora finally answered. "That's not possible, he'd never do something like that."

A rush of anger started to boil inside Riku. "You have known him for... what? A week? You know nothing about him!" He was struggling to keep his words calm and controlled, but the alcohol in his blood was making difficult to restrain himself.

"Maybe you misunderstood. Maybe it was an accident."

Once more, he forced himself not to scream. There was some kind of purity in Sora's attitude, like he wasn't really able to imagine that someone could do something that bad. "We were best friends." he explained, refusing to look at him. "One year ago, I told him that I am... that I like... yeah, well, you understood. He said nothing and ran away and the day after, everyone in that damn school started targeting me. End of the story."

Another long silence ensued. Fifty steps long, this time. "So... you're not sure that it was his fault, right?"

This time, Riku didn't manage to keep calm. He glared at the younger boy so intensely that he saw him instinctively taking a step back. "Do you have another explanation?" He was dangerously close to screaming.

"I don't, but maybe he has, have you asked him?" Sora answered equally strong.

The upperclassman was taken a little aback by that answer. It was true that he had never talked with Roxas about what had happened, actually he had never talked to Roxas at all after the incident. But he didn't really care about any justifications that the blond boy may have had, the facts were that since the moment he had trusted him, his life had fallen apart.

Riku waited to regain a little bit of self-control before talking again. "So, you already knew about me liking... uh, you know..." he asked. There was no need to specify what he was referring to. The next question was a lot more difficult to bring out. "Are you... cool with that?"

Sora's eyes shone even more. "Why shouldn't I?" he answered in the plainest way possible. "As long as people are nice with me, I don't care what anyone is." Riku felt a wave of gratitude towards him.

"How did you know?"

"Seifer and Kairi told me." the brunet admitted, glossing over the fact that Roxas was the one who had confirmed that. "I'm sorry that you had to endure all of that."

"Seifer." Riku muttered, just slightly gritting his teeth. "I will never understand how and why people keep orbiting around that idiot..."

"Be honest with yourself here, you too were friend with him before..."

"...before they started to ignore me?" he ended the sentence before his friend could. "Well, the fact that I was in the same group as him doesn't necessarily mean that I respected him, you know? It's better not to get on the bad side of certain people and Seifer is one of those guys." He then got closer to Sora's ear and adopted a nearly conspiratorial attitude. "Oh, and for your own sake, stay as far away as possible from Kairi too."

The brunet burst into laughter. "I got that feeling, yeah. What's the deal with her, anyway?"

"She was my ex." Blunt answer.

"Soooo... did you two ever..."

Riku squeezed his eyes and pulled his tongue, disgusted. "Heck no, we never had anything physical, nothing more than a few kisses, thank god."

Another fifty steps.

"Why did you have a girlfriend if you're gay?"

The silver-haired boy shivered. "Don't call me that!" he was asking kindly, but his voice betrayed a certain anxiety.

"Uh? I'm sorry, it's just..."

"I know what I am and I'm fine with that. Just... don't use that word, please."

Sora looked at him, a strange mix of disapproval and compassion. "Somehow, I doubt you really are."

"What..."

"I doubt that you're fine with what you are, if you react this way!"

A lot of thoughts crossed Riku's mind, first amongst them, how in the world that boy dared to imagine what was going on in his head. But before he could add anything else, Sora sprinted in front of him and towards a small house.

"We did it! Finally!" At the other boy's confused look, Sora started to explain. "It's my house, Riku. I live here!"

"Oh, good for you." he answered, badly trying to hide a shade of disappointment. "Well... see you tomorrow, then."

But it looked like Sora had other programs for the night. He swiftly grabbed Riku's arm and started dragging him towards the house. "Come oooon, it's late! You can't go home alone, just stay here for the night, tomorrow we'll go to school together!"

And so, after a few minutes of useless resistance, the upperclassman let his friend drag him in.

The moment they entered in the small house, Sora gestured him not to make any noises, his parents must have been asleep, Riku thought. They quietly took off their shoes, paying attention not to fall while doing it. He was surprised at how much he was still wobbling.

They climbed the spiral staircase up to the first floor, then, they finally entered a room. Despite its small size, it was filled with tons of stuffs which made it seems even more claustrophobic: from clothes scattered all around the floor to whole series of manga stuffed on shelfs. On the walls, various posters were looking at them and, in a corner, an incredible number of videogames boxes were carefully collected. Riku looked at all of this in awe and admiration.

When he turned towards his friend, Sora was drinking from a bottle of water, but Riku didn't remember when he had taken it. "Here, drink." the brunet offered. "Even if you don't feel thirsty, just do it."

Riku obeyed. Or, at least he tried to, until he started coughing and spitting water at the sight of the brunet quickly undressing in front of him. Clearly unconcerned by his reaction, once his shirt and pants taken out, Sora quickly jumped into the double-sized bed lying in the farthest corner of the room.

Riku was standing still in the middle of the room and it was so not true that he was staring at Sora's not really muscular, yet perfectly fit body, with just that slightest hint of a six-pack that he couldn't help but find incredibly attractive. Totally not true. "Well? Are you coming? I'm kinda tired and tomorrow is a school day."

Realization struck Riku when he understood that when he had asked _'are you coming'_ the brunet meant _'you're going to sleep in this bed with me half-naked next to you.'_. He took a few steps towards the bed, unsure about what the most sensitive thing to do could be. And then he finally took place into the bed, paying the most attention not to accidentally touch the other boy who was staring at him.

"What the hell, Riku? Do you sleep dressed?"

Ok, now he was sure that Sora was trying on purpose to provoke him. In the most natural way he could manage to, he started to take off his shirt. He then stood up again to put it on a close chair.

"I was right about you: you are well-built. You would definitively make a good Struggle player."

Riku thought best to turn off the light to hide his blush before answering. "Uhm... about that, the game looks quite interesting, I've got to admit it."

"That's great! So, tomorrow you'll take part in the tryouts?"

Oh, right, he had forgot about those. Of course, there's where Sora wanted to get at. "We'll see." he simply answered while taking place in the bed, so close to the edge that he was nearly falling from it.

"If you won't I'll tickle you to death all night!"

Wait... he couldn't be serious. Two boys, sleeping half-naked in the same bed, tickling each other. That was the most gayish thing he could think of. For a second, he thought of Sora's hands running over his body and to the fact that it wouldn't be so bad, after all. The second later, though, he decided otherwise. "Alright, I'll do it. Entering the tryouts, I mean."

Sora seemed satisfied with that, considering that he mumbled a muffled _'g'night'_ before starting to snore noisily less than a minute later.

Riku, that until that moment had faced the other side, turned to look at the boy's face. He looked happy with his peaceful smile, like he hadn't a single thought in the world. And for once in a long time, Riku thought that, maybe, it wasn't so bad to have a friend.

* * *

**End Notes**: Sorry for being late, my apologies and enjoy.

**Preview**: Riku hates Roxas. Roxas doesn't hate Riku. What happens when the two of them find themselves sharing a car? With Sora no less?

**Next Chapter (11.09.2020): Echoes of the Past**


	8. Echoes of the Past

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not always combine coffee and lemon, but I sometimes do it as a very effective headache therapy.

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _OngakuDream_: Thank you so much for your always-extremely-detailed-reviews, those really make my day :). I hope their relationship doesn't come out as rushed, I always struggle trying to find the right balance (Sora will test Riku's patience during this chapter, though ;).

\- _LitteralFandomTrashXD_: More cuteness ahead!

\- _TheBlackCoat_: Ahahah, I was worried that you were gone, I admit it. Your reviews are always great. Also, you got it right on the foreshadowing part, but I won't say anything more :).

\- _RiSofangirl_: Eh... just trying to picture what sleeping with someone like Riku would look like...

\- _FireScorby_: Thanks a lot for the support.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Echoes of the Past**

On Wednesday morning, Riku woke up with a violent headache. He quickly decided that whatever the time could be, he had to sleep a few more hours before being able to get out of bed and decided that the most sensitive thing to do was to hide his head under the pillow.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty." a voice chirped, resonating way too loudly in the back of his mind.

It must have been funny to see him spring out of bed in a split second at the realization that he was in someone else's company and then going back almost as fast at the realization that he was only wearing his pants. "Where's my shirt?"

Sora was standing in the middle of the room, studying his reactions and looking clearly amused by it. "My, my... a bit shy, aren't we?" He then proceeds to toss him a clean t-shirt.

It was a bit short for him, but he started dressing, paying attention to show as less as possible of his skin to the other boy, who seemed perfectly at ease wandering around wearing just a pair of boxers. The dull pain in his head resurfaced again, forcing him to pause for a moment before finally standing up.

"I'd told you to drink some water yesterday." Sora informed him calmly. "Cool evening, though, don't you think?"

Riku did not know what to answer to that, especially because he didn't remember much of what had happened the night before. He had a few scattered memories of having started to drink a few shots with Sora, then to have sung something together and to have fallen asleep in his bed. With him, no less.

Still, it made a blank of a considerable amount of hours.

"I'm going to get you something for your headache, come down when you're ready, ok?" And with those words the brunet quickly put a shirt on and exited the room, leaving the upperclassman alone with his thoughts.

Riku massaged his temples for a few seconds before finally deciding to check the time on his phone. A moment later, he followed the other boy into the kitchen. "I think we missed the bus, guess we can forget first class this morning." he said with little to no concern.

Sora had just finished messing with a coffee machine and was now taking out a slice of lemon from the fridge. Riku forced himself to accept that there had to be a reason for why the boy was squeezing it inside the cup of coffee. "Uhm... aren't your parents here?"

For a moment, Sora's expression clouded, but a second later, he was smiling, making him think that maybe he had just imagined it. "Mom's rarely here during the week." He then offered him the cup.

"Your father?"

"Left when I was little."

"Sorry."

"Don't be." Sora answered, taking place with him at the long table in the room. "It's not like it's your fault and anyway I don't even remember him. It's always been my mom and me."

Riku looked at the black liquid in the small container resting in his hands, knowing very well what was inside of it. "Listen, I'm not supposed to drink this... thing, right?"

"Just do it, you'll feel better later, trust me."

_'Trust you?'_ Riku thought. _'Just give me a reason to do it.'_ Then he realized that Sora's piercing blue eyes were staring at him again and he gulped it instantly. He coughed out half of it immediately after.

"That's the most disgusting thing that I've ever experienced." he claimed, indignantly. "And I've been in a relationship for a full year with Kairi." he couldn't resist but add a second later.

"You should stop being so resentful towards them." _'Them'_ clearly indicating Kairi and her friends. Sora's actual friends, by extension. "They were not really nice towards you, their bad. Show them that you're a better person."

Riku glared at him, but in the end chose to ignore that last sentence. "We're still late for school, you know."

"Oh, don't worry about that, I've got a better way to get there than the school bus. Just be ready in fifteen minutes."

And before he could ask him what he meant by that, Sora had already disappeared again in the direction of the bathroom. A few moments later, Riku heard the water flowing and Sora (badly) singing _'Should I Stay or Should I Go'_. Bizarre choice for a shower song.

His headache had disappeared.

* * *

A few minutes later, the two boys were in front of Sora's house, waiting for who-knows-what. Riku had quickly combed his hair the best way he could manage without disposing of something better than his hands and his reflection on the microwave glass, Sora having kept occupied the bathroom just until the moment of leaving the house. Sneaky little bastard.

"You look way too good for someone who has slept... what? Four hours top?" he said while trying to avoid yawning mid-sentence.

"Uh? No, no. Actually, I'm pretty tired, I just hope this day will be over soon."

Still, Riku got the distinct feeling that Sora was somehow used to getting wasted during the week. Definitively not the first impression he had got from him.

The train of his thoughts was interrupted when a sport car started to approach them at a disturbingly elevated speed. Luckily, it stopped just before running them over. Unluckily, Riku knew the owner of the car way too well.

"Hey, Riku. Sora told me that you needed a passage." Roxas exclaimed the second his head popped from the car window, as if he was trying to justify his being there.

Riku ignored him, as usual. After all, the best way to keep it civil between them was to avoid every kind of interaction. At that precise moment, though, he couldn't help but think at the possibility of turning back and indulging in the noble art of truancy.

Sora opened the rear car door and took place next to Roxas. After a careful consideration, he resisted the temptation of taking the passenger seat and followed Sora. A whole brunet of distance between him and the blond boy should have been enough to survive a ten minutes journey, after all.

"Hi, Sora. Hey, Riku, it's been a long time." Cloud, sitting at the driving place, welcomed the two boys into the car. Then, without even waiting for an answer, he hit the gas pedal and a second later the four of them were running on the roads of Twilight Town.

None said anything for the first couple of minutes, giving Riku hope that the travel could keep going that way. Roxas clearly had other plans. "So... uhm... how are you doing, Riku?"

Alright, even if he was really tempted to, he could not ignore him. Not when his brother was offering him a passage, he was not that rude. "Great, how could it be otherwise?" Cold irony: he could afford that. Still, he paid attention not to ask him how _he_ was doing.

Another minute passed before Sora broke the silence, bearing a huge smile. "So, Roxas, you'll enter the tryouts for the Struggle team, today?"

"I'd rather go on a date with Seifer."

Riku was sure that Roxas' reference to homosexual dates must have just slipped, at least judging from the embarrassing explication that followed, about how the problem was Seifer's character and not his gender. Too bad, without the explanation, it could have been a funny joke.

Another embarrassing silence ensued, broken once again by the brunet. "Well, come see us at least, Riku will take part in it."

Riku made no effort to hide his surprise. "I will?"

"Sure you will! You promised!" Sora scowled at him.

Roxas' face lit up suddenly. "I think it's a good idea. You've not been on a sport team since..." And he stopped talking, involuntarily stressing on the accident with his swimming team. At that point, Riku started to think that the blond boy was doing it on purpose. "Well, since a lot." he finally concluded clumsily.

That was unusual of Roxas, he thought, he wasn't the kind of guy to make that kind of slips. It seemed like he was extremely nervous.

The rest of the trip went over without another word. Cloud said goodbye and, a second later, he was already out of sight. Of course, Riku's first thought was to get away as fast as possible from Roxas. Sora could stay with him, for all he cared. Still, for some reason, the idea of the brunet choosing the blond boy over him made his guts twist up uncomfortably.

At the second step that he took away from the other boys, a voice stopped him.

"Wait for us, Riku."

_'Us? US?'_ He must have hallucinating, surely Sora was not suggesting that Roxas would have stuck with them.

"Let it go, Sora, I'll see you later." Roxas' words hurt Riku more than they should have. Fucking condescending brat.

And at that precise moment, Sora took a deep breath, noisily enough to catch the attention of the other boys. "Alright, I get it, Riku: you don't like Roxas." the silver haired boy shivered at the bluntness of the boy. "I'm not asking you to become friend with him or anything else, but..." He didn't like that _'but'_. At all. Sora took a few steps, bringing himself face to face to the older boy. "Please, can you just call a truce?"

He just couldn't believe his ears. Sora had no idea what he had to endure because of his ex-best friend, how could he ask him something like that? He wanted to tell him that, no, he would've never accepted something like that, that the only thing he wanted was to be left alone. But at the same time...

At the same time, for some inexplicable reasons, he could not bring himself to say 'no' to the boy that was standing in front of him, looking at him with those terrifying blue eyes.

"Just do it for me, ok?"

Riku forced himself to stay calm. Then, after a whole minute spent gathering the necessary strength, he turned around and looked at Roxas in the face, for the first time in a whole year.

"I guess we can keep things civil." he blurted out. He then extended his hand as a well-meaning sign, which Roxas promptly shook. Still, Riku couldn't help but feel wrong for having accepted to do something like that. Then, without giving Roxas the time to object, he started walking towards Sora, who was smiling like a kid who had received a great Christmas gift. Before the brunet could say anything, he decided to cut him short. "I'm not doing it for you!"

"Nice tsundere line" Sora answered nonchalantly.

Riku ignored him and kept on walking towards the cafeteria. They still had ten minutes before the first class and he didn't want to spend them in the courtyard. Even if he wasn't looking at him, he could hear Sora's footsteps following him.

And then, he threw a look behind him and realized that Roxas hadn't budged a single inch. He sighed. "Well, are you coming or not, Roxas?"

A second later, another pair of footsteps started echoing behind him.

* * *

**End Notes**: And another couple of "building chapters" are coming. Luckily there will be something more juicy quite soon. Peace.

**Preview**: The fact that Sora keeps on spending more and more time with Riku is observed carefully by two people. Roxas... and Seifer.

**Next Chapter (18.09.2020): Just Friends**


	9. Just Friends

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not approve of bullying, even if you'll see a quite big amounts of it in the next few chapters...

**Warnings**: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

**Reviewers**:

\- _LitteralFandomTrashXD_: I appreciate the reviews, but I have to admit that they don't make much sense. Wouldn't it be better if you write what you like (or don't like) and why, instead?

\- _TheBlackCoat_: Thanks a lot. That was one of the best reviews that I've ever received. And you got me, I'm a big fan of Steins; Gate and couldn't help myself with that.

\- _Guest_: Lol, the edgelord.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Just Friends**

It was strange to sit at that small table, isolated in the far corner of the cafeteria and clearly not fit to host three people at the same time. Roxas couldn't help but think to the last time he had shared a moment like that with his best friend. Ex-best friend, actually.

Riku wasn't happy to have him there: Roxas knew that that table was his little sanctuary, one of the few places he had carved out for himself and where none was welcomed. None but Sora, apparently.

Sure, someone could have said that the brunet had invited himself there, that he had forced his way in. But that couldn't have been farther from the truth. Roxas remembered way too well what had happened just a year ago.

He remembered Riku sitting there, alone, looking around him like a feral beast trying to protect his territory. He remembered his aquamarine eyes reduced to slits, glaring at everyone who made the mistake of walking too closely. And, finally, he remembered the last words that he had told him, when he had tried to sit there with him.

"I hate you!"

And so Roxas knew it: if Sora could sit there, it was because Riku had let him do it. The reason for that was behind his comprehension, but that didn't stop him from getting a few ideas... He looked at the brunet, who was laughing.

"...no way, Riku! You really took his hand in front of the whole class? That's... like asking for it, you know."

"I told you I was six. It's not like I understood the difference between a boy or a girl back then."

"Actually, this proves that you understood it way too well."

"Has anybody ever told you that you're funny?"

"Plenty of times."

"Well, they were lying."

And a few of those ideas kept getting stronger in Roxas' heads at the sight of the two boys bickering. Even if 'bickering' wasn't the first word that came to his mind. Even if he wasn't probably doing it on purpose, Roxas knew Riku way too well not to realize the truth.

He was flirting.

He clearly liked Sora.

"Hey, Roxas, you with us?" Sora asked innocently, making him realize that he was spacing out.

"Uh, sure. You were talking about the Struggle tryouts."

Riku snorted. "Yes, ten minutes ago." His tone of voice had gone back to ice cold so quickly that Roxas couldn't help but shiver. But at least he was answering him, now. It was a beginning.

"Don't worry, Rox. I gave up trying to convince you to join, any case." Sora smiled. "But you said that you'll come as a spectator."

"I did?"

"Sora has this fastidious habit to remember every word you say. And sometimes to twist them a bit." Riku smirked, his attitude just a little more relaxed than before.

And then the bell rang, and before Roxas could blink, Riku had already disappeared in the crowd muttering a 'goodbye' to the two of them. Left alone with his friend, he finally asked the question that was bugging him. "How did you do it?"

The brunet stared at him interrogatively. "Did what?"

"How did you manage to gain Riku's trust?" he specified, even if he was pretty sure that Sora had perfectly understood what he meant the first time.

As an answer, his friend started to gather his stuff and stood up. "Are you coming? We'll be late for chem otherwise."

Roxas obeyed and followed him, determined to get an answer. Sora kept on walking, refusing to slow down to let the blond boy reach him. Roxas got the distinct feeling that the moment Riku had disappeared, Sora had become a lot less friendly with him.

When they finally reached a nearly-desert corridor, a whole minute later, the brunet finally stopped, so abruptly that Roxas nearly bumped into him. He turned to look at him and, for the first time, Roxas saw a glimpse in his eyes that scared him. "I know it's not my business, Roxas, but what did happen between you and Riku?"

"What... How... I mean, why do you want to know..." He then realized the reason of Sora's cold shoulders: Riku had probably told him something. Now that Riku was away, he had decided to face him. "What did he tell you?"

Silence. "He told me that you outed him."

"That's not true!" he answered, way too fast to sound convincing. Even if it was the absolute truth.

"Why does he think that you did it, then?" Piercing blue eyes were staring at him, carefully analyzing his reactions. Roxas didn't like that.

"I don't know." he answered, trying to keep his emotions in check. "I tried to ask him multiple times, but he always refused to speak to me. I guess it's because he had... uhm... told me that he liked guys just the day before." In truth, there was something else, but Roxas wasn't sure what precisely Riku had told Sora and it wasn't his place to tell him.

"You sure you didn't do it?" the brunet asked one more time. There was something strangely similar to hope in his voice.

"I'm sure! I'd never do something like that! Riku was my best friend, you know?" He was starting to get irritated at getting a third degree for something he had never done.

Ten whole seconds passed, during which Sora's eyes didn't leave him for a second. Then, suddenly, the brunet closed them and let out his breath.

"Whew. I'm glad you're not an asshole."

Sora's reaction left Roxas speechless. But before he could say something, the brunet had already resumed his usual carefree attitude and was now smiling brightly at him. "I'm sorry, Rox. I just needed to be sure." He then dropped his smile and got a serious expression. "Even though, this means that there must be a huge misunderstanding between the two of you."

Completely baffled by Sora's mood swing, Roxas couldn't do anything else but nod. "Yeah, but I just don't see what I can do about it. Riku just wouldn't listen to me. Or to you."

That innocent smile creeped back on Sora's face. And, for a moment, Roxas got the feeling that it wasn't as innocent as it looked like. "Just leave that to me."

* * *

By lunch, Sora had already a well-defined idea about how he would've made Riku and Roxas reconcile and was now deeply focused on discussing with Axel and Saïx about what the coach could have planned for the Struggle tryouts. Axel was pretty sure that the old Auron would have fallen back on the classical 'the one left standing stays', which could range from multiples matches to a real battle royal, while Saïx thought he would have resorted to something more original like individual tests to better check the competitor's skills.

"Now that I think, about it, how did you manage to find a spot in the team, Sora?" Saïx asked seriously, out of the blue. "Auron isn't the kind of guy to let someone join in just because."

"Yeah, Saïx's right." Axel spurred him. "More than that, you got transferred in the middle of a school year. What did you do to get accepted? I couldn't even pass last semester's tryouts..."

"I hope it didn't involve some sort of sexual favors." It was difficult to say if Saïx was being serious or not, what with his everlasting poker face. Nevertheless, he earned a laugh from Sora.

Unfortunately Seifer, who was sharing the table with them -and Hayner, Larxene and Roxas-, chose that moment to make his presence known. "Yeah, I'm quite curious too to know how little Sora managed to sneak his presence into our team."

"Trade secret, guys." the brunet teased, still wary of the upperclassman. "Let's just say that I have some high-profile connections."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot that you're the kind of guy that everyone likes." The sly smirk on Seifer's face remembered Sora the picture of a sloth he had recently seen on an internet meme. He couldn't help but smile. "Speaking of which, where did you left your boyfriend?"

Sora's smile disappeared immediately: if Seifer had slapped him in the face, it would have been less painful. And it also would have given him an excuse to slap him back. "Riku is not my boyfriend!" Man, even to himself, he sounded too much apologizing.

"Come on, man. Everybody knows it, right now you're the talk of the school, didn't you realize it?"

Of course, Sora knew way too well how the rumor mill worked in high school: people were constantly searching for something to gossip about. It didn't matter if it was true or not. And he could clearly see how him spending time with the gay boy of the school was something way too ambiguous to be ignored. He looked for some support from Roxas, but it looked like the blond boy wasn't listening. Or pretending not to.

"He's just a friend, alright? I didn't even know that he was gay when I started talking to him." He kinda hated himself for that sentence: it seemed to imply that he wouldn't have started spending time with him if he had known in advance his sexual preferences. But right now, he needed to clarify that things weren't like that.

He checked the small table in the corner of the cafeteria where Riku sat every morning: as usual it was empty, the tall boy having the habit to disappear who-knows-where during lunchtime. It was better like that: he wouldn't have liked for him to overhear that conversation.

"'Just a friend'... of course he is." Hayner, that Sora had not even considered until that moment, felt the urge to side with Seifer. What a surprise.

And that made Larxene, who had been unusually quiet until that moment, roll his eyes. "Oh, for the god of... you're one to talk, Hayner."

The blond boy looked clearly shocked by that sentence, like if someone daring to question his sexuality was something absolutely unbelievable. "What do you mean? I've never talked to Riku since he has been outed." he declared proudly.

Sora had to make an incredible effort to restrain himself from punching him in the face right there. "Sure, he could've infected you with gay germs."

"Eh, nice one, kiddo." Larxene answered smirking. "And, for the record, I was referring to the way you keep on following Seifer around like a puppy."

If Hayner was trying to transform into a tomato, Sora had to admit that he was doing a pretty good impression: his whole face had become deep red that fast that Axel's hair looked a pale orange by comparison.

"Sick burn, bro." the redhead commented. "So, to get back on topic, what do you think coach Auron will have in store for us, Seifer?"

Luckily, thanks to Axel's intervention, the conversation managed to stay away from Riku for the rest of the lunch. That didn't stop Sora's mind from running wild at the possible implications of keeping on spending time with his silver-haired friend.

But more than everything, there was something else that was bugging him. It was a detail, but he couldn't help but notice it. And it made him feel pretty bad.

Roxas hadn't said a single word during the entire conversation.

* * *

**End Notes**: What's going on? I'm getting less and less reviews every chapter! I'm starting to wonder if my story is getting bad...

**Preview**: All bets are off: the Struggle tryouts are finally starting!

**Next Chapter: Tryouts - Part 1**


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